


Forever and Always

by tentoheaven (firstmins)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Horror, I Tried, M/M, Major Character Undeath, Mild Gore, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:41:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25033381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstmins/pseuds/tentoheaven
Summary: It always starts with a creak of the door. That’s how Kun knows he’s there.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 14
Kudos: 56





	Forever and Always

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this instead of sleeping and I apologise. Heed the tags!

It always starts with a creak of the door. That’s how Kun knows he’s there.   


Always the same sound, always exactly seventeen minutes past one. The time had been engraved into his mind long before the nightly visits started. 

He’s tried locking the door, blocking it with chairs and tables. Yet when the time comes, the door opens. Every. Time. 

Next are the footsteps, heavy and slow. It’s almost what unsettles Kun the most, the wrongness of it. Those steps were always light, graceful, always in a hurry to get to the next part of life, to live it to the fullest. Until his last moments, he was always moving, bustling with barely veiled energy. 

There’s no energy in these steps. Only the sound of feet dragging over the wooden floor. 

The humming starts then, soft at first and steadily growing louder, angrier. It turns from a lullaby that’d soothed Kun on so many occasions to a haunting crescendo, more shrill and inhuman with every passing second. His heart is racing in his chest. 

It’s a habit more than a reflex when Kun covers his ears, mere seconds before the glass of his window shatters. Cold air prickles his skin, but that has nothing to do with the way Kun’s body is shaking. 

His eyes are stinging with repressed tears. He blinks through them. He can survive another night. 

The humming stops along with the steps. He’s here. 

Kun is dimly aware of a warm liquid dripping down his arm, a result of the shatters of glass that had pierced his skin. Tomorrow it’ll be gone, he knows. 

He can see the shadow of a figure, of  _ him _ , standing in front of the door through the gap underneath. He’s certain the lights in the corridor hadn’t been on earlier, but he no longer wonders how that’s possible. 

He squeezes his eyes shut at the sound of a door handle being turned, the taste of warm copper fresh in his mouth. He has two options now. It’s fight or flight. 

His curiosity had gotten the best of him, once, on the very first night. It’d felt like a dream, a miracle. His angel was back.

That was before he saw him, before he saw the rotten skin peeling off his cheek and the chapped and bloody lips pulled back in a grin, showing yellowed teeth. The eyes were the worst part. Once sparkling with mirth as he teased Kun endlessly, fond with love, now liveless. It’s like the colour had been sucked out of them. He could almost see the veins that were fighting to keep the eyeballs in their sockets, black instead of red. 

Kun had screamed, begged for his life, just like  _ he  _ had so many nights ago, but the monster’s smile only grew. The singing had resumed, then, and Kun had felt bile rise in his throat, unable to hold back the tears or the vomit. He didn’t dare open his eyes as he puked his guts out, but he felt a scorching breath against his ear, could smell the stench of rotting flesh. He’d cried harder, snot dripping from his nose and vomit down his chin. The creature, the monster, the man he used to love, had laughed. 

By the time Kun had regained the courage to look around, he was gone. The shattered glass had disappeared, windows restored and door closed. Outside, the lights were out. 

Kun had still been able to feel the ice cold grip of a bony hand on his shoulder for hours afterwards. 

Now he knows better, knows the only thing he can do is to hide under the safety of his blanket and wait for him to leave. 

Like clockwork, the humming starts again. Kun freezes. It’s a different tune, tonight. Their wedding song. 

His last song. 

It’s getting harder to breathe under the sheets, the haunting tune making his chest constrict and sucking the air out of him. The footsteps are getting closer, closer and he can feel those empty eyes on him, that horrifying mimic of a smile. 

The hands holding his blanket over his head are shaking violently, and it shifts. The smallest patch of skin is revealed, the tip of his heel, cold air hitting it in an instant. Kun holds his breath. Complete silence, except for the wind ruffling the trees outside. The call of an owl. 

A clawing hand grips his ankle

Nails are digging into his skin, drawing blood but Kun bites on the insides of his cheeks, refusing to make a sound. 

_ “Kun… _ ”

It’s airy, barely a whisper carried by the harsh autumn winds. The hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. He no longer notices the pain, the blood. His lungs are burning, still he refuses to breathe. A calming thought, suffocation, an end to this nightmare. 

But his husband wouldn’t let him off that easy. 

The fingers, closer to knives than actual human fingers, move up his leg, slicing through the skin he uncovers. Warm tears are rolling down Kun’s cheeks and he holds back a whimper. It feels like the skin, muscles, every fiber is ripped off, until he’s just bones. Even that will turn to ash under his burning touch. 

“ _ Kun…” _ The voice breathes again. Kun is feeling lightheaded, knows there would be spots dancing in front of his eyes if he dared to open them. He doesn’t. 

He’s waiting for the moment the blanket will be ripped off completely, giving him nowhere to hide. Something tells him he’s not surviving the night, not this time. Maybe it’s just hopeful thinking. 

The blanket isn’t ripped off though, no. Kun’s leg is suddenly released from his clutches, the claws disappearing. It’s then that Kun’s damning survival instinct kicks in, forcing him to take a breath and almost making him choke on thin air. As he starts breathing, the world outside of the sheets appears to stop. 

Pressure on his forehead, through the thick fabric. 

Gently, almost tenderly, the blanket is moved aside, leaving Kun defenceless. He can smell it again, the stench of decay, the burnt undertone. His eyelashes flutter when sweltering breaths crawl over his skin.

_ “Look at me, darling.” _

In that moment his voice sounds almost human, almost right. High but alluring, sweet but playful. Kun has never been able to deny him anything.

Air hitches in his throat when he meets his husband’s gaze and sees something close to recognition. He’s shaking with sobs, unable to look away from those loving eyes, ignoring the lack of colour, the yellow hue, the skin peeling from his temple.

“Ten,” he chokes out, reaching out. Ten’s body is stiff under his hands, like a lifesize doll, but Kun doesn’t acknowledge it. “Ten.”

The hand placed on the side of his cheek feels like leather, nothing like the softness from before, but it still wipes his tears away just the same. Kun is transported back to that first night, when he thought the world had returned Ten to him, had given him a second chance. It isn’t too late, he tells himself.

Just as soon as the thought passes through his mind, the hand on his cheek tightened it’s hold, pressing down. Kun’s eyes widened, unable to move as his head is pressed down into the pillow, all he can do is watch as the light vanishes from Ten’s eyes and his smile turns cruel. Sharp nails are digging into the soft skin under his eyes until blood is falling into his eye, turning him half blind. He tries to scream, but he’s frozen, unable to do anything but stare at Ten with the knowledge that this might be the last thing he ever sees.

The corpse leans in, fanning his dry lips over Kun’s ears. “ _ You did this. _ ”

Another sob shreds through Kun’s body as he tries to shake his head, deny it. The nails dig deeper, pull slightly like they’re about to rip his cheek of and just like that Kun is trapped by fear once more. He’d begged for release so many nights before, but now that death is tying its noose around his neck, all he wants is to live.

_ “You did this to me,”  _ Ten whispers again, and this time Kun nods. Anything to please him, anything to live.

“I did it,” he confesses, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, god, please.”

A scream, almost animalistic, tears through the room and and whimpers. Ten has lifted his head, white fury in his void eyes as he closes his other hand around Kun’s throat. 

_ “You left me,”  _ Ten continues, as if Kun doesn’t know. As if regret doesn’t burn him from the inside out.

He wants to apologise, to keep pleading for his life but he can’t breathe, can’t do anything but make pitiful sounds as Ten tightens his hold. The scent of smoke and rot is everywhere, the result of skin burned off of bones. His stomach churns and he feels nauseous when he spots the markings on Ten’s arms.

For a blissful second the grip around his throat loosens and Kun gulps for air, sight blurred by tears and blood. Before he can inhale enough for the stinging of his lungs to cease, cold leathery lips are on his, drowning him further. He gags at the taste, of dirt and old blood and something bitter that he can’t make out. Bile rises in his throat but finds no escape as Ten doesn’t let go, doesn’t allow him to do anything but sob as he’s kissed for the first time since their wedding. 

It doesn’t take long before darkness starts to edge around his vision, the lack of air making him dizzy. One second he’s burning, the next he’s floating, and he can imagine those lips to be as soft as they always were, only slightly chapped due to Ten’s habit of biting them when he’s nervous. He can taste the strawberry lip balm Ten’s so fond of, smell the sweet scent around him.

Somewhere far away, Ten sings a gentle melody. Two months ago Kun had danced to it with Ten in his arms, laughing and smiling and so in love. It’s a love that never fades, even now, as he lets himself drift away to the sound of his lover’s voice. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing sth like this so please don't be too harsh on me <33 Hope you enjoyed(?) and please let me know what you think!
> 
> You can also find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/tentoheaven)!


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